scholarly journals Some conceptual and grammatical properties of body part metonymies in English and Bosnian

ExELL ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-39
Author(s):  
Adisa Imamović ◽  
Anela Mulahmetović Ibrišimović
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Metaphor And Metonymy

Abstract The paper deals with metonymies having body parts as source domains in English and Bosnian. According to Cognitive Linguistics standpoint, human cognition is based on bodily functioning. Therefore, we started from the hypothesis that most body part metonymies are very similar across languages and cultures, and share similar properties. The aim of the paper was threefold: first, to examine whether metonymies with body parts as source domains have common grammatical and conceptual properties in English, secondly to examine whether they share the same properties in Bosnian, and thirdly to compare the two languages in this respect. We analysed body part metonymies in terms of some grammatical properties such as the use of singular and plural, specific and generic reference, grammatical recategorisation from count to mass nouns, noun-to-verb conversion, and some conceptual properties such as source-in-target vs. target-in-source metonymies, metonymic chains and combination of metaphor and metonymy. Many common features were found both within the respective languages under consideration and in cross-linguistic analysis. The minor differences found in contrasting the data from the two languages are mainly the result of differences in grammatical systems.

scholarly journals Cross-linguistic Analysis of Metonymic Conceptualization of Personality in English and Vietnamese Idioms Containing "Head", "Face" and “Eyes”

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 23-32
Author(s):  
Nguyen Ngoc Vu ◽  
Nguyen Thi Thu Van ◽  
Nguyen Thi Hong Lien
Keyword(s):  
Language Learners ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Cognitive Semantics ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Idiomatic Meaning

Research on idioms from the point of view of cognitive linguistics, in particular through conceptual metaphor and conceptual metonymy in cognitive semantics, has been steadily growing. While there have been quite a few investigations into the role of conceptual metaphors in meaning formation, conceptual metonymies are still left underexplored. This article examines the role of metonymic conceptualization of personality in English and Vietnamese idioms containing "head", "face" and “eyes” from the conceptual metonymy theory of cognitive linguistics. With analyzed examples from 713 English languages and 947 Vietnamese idioms of body parts collected, the article shows that metonymic conceptualization plays an essential part in the formation of meaning. There are many similarities in the way "head", "face" and “eyes” are conceptualized for personality in both English and Vietnamese cultures. However, why Vietnamese body part idioms use a lot of symbolic pairs, English idioms do not. The study suggests more attention to conceptual metonymy in teaching idioms in order to help students infer idiomatic meanings. Rather than asking students to learn by heart the composite meaning of idioms, teachers should encourage them to guess the idiomatic meaning. Besides, conceptual metonymy should be explained to students since it helps language learners infer idiomatic meaning and retain it longer.

الاشتراكُ الدلاليُّ في لفظِ (الرأس)

2021 ◽  
pp. arabic cover-english cover
Author(s):  
لعبيدي بو عبد الله ◽  
شيماء عبد الله عبد الغفور
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
Semantic Domain ◽  
History Of ◽  
Analytical Approaches

تُعَدُّ ظاهرةُ الاشتراكِ الدلاليّ ظاهرة مركزية في جميع اللغاتِ الإنسانيّةِ، فهي تستمدُ كينونتها من الهيكل المفاهيمي للإنسان، ومن تفاعل إدراكه مع العالم الخارجي. وقد جاءَتْ هذه الورقة لتقارب ظــاهرة الاشتراك الدلاليّ إدراكيًّا في المعجم العربي -وفق منهج وصفي تحليلي-، متخذةً من كلمة (الرأس) أنموذجًا. وتهدفُ هذه الدراسة للإجابة عن التساؤلات الآتية: ما البنية الإدراكية الكامنة وراء حدوث ظاهرة الاشتراك الدلاليّ في ألفاظ أجزاء الجسد عامة وكلمة (رَأْس) خاصةً؟ وما الحقول الدلاليّة التي امتد إليها واتساعاتها الاستعارية والكنائية؟ كما تعمل الدراسة على الكشف عن البنية الإدراكية التي تجمع المعاني المتعددة للفظ (الرأس) بالإضافة إلى الكشف عن شبكة العلاقات الدلاليّة بين المعاني المتعددة التي يضمها. وقد خَلُصَتْ هذه الورقة البحثية إلى كون التوسعاتِ الدلاليّةِ، والاستعمالاتِ الاستعاريّةِ، والكنائيّةِ لكلمة (رَأْس) تتصلُ بنسقنا التصوّري، وبالتفاعل الدائم بين تجاربنا اليوميّة مع رؤوسنا والعالم الخارجي. الكلمات المفتاحية: (الاشتراك الدلاليّ، اللسانيات الإدراكية، تاريخ اللسانيات الإدراكية، الجسد، رأس) Abstract Polysemy is a central phenomenon in all languages. It shows the interaction between human cognition and human environment. This paper aims to answer the following questions: what is the language mechanisms that is used among Arabs and makes sense of body part terms extend to a new semantic domain? And What are the semantic domains that the word ‘head’ extended to? To achieve the objectives this paper, the researchers adopted the cognitive approach. As well as the descriptive and analytical approaches using the word ‘head’ as a case study and traced its meaning as it developed through metaphor and metonymy. Also, it crossed over from one semantic field to another. It will show that demonstrate of ‘head’ and its semantic extensions derive directly from conceptual patterns that were created as a result of experiences and interaction between our heads, and the outside world. Key words: (polysemy, cognitive linguistics, the history of cognitive linguistics, body, head).

Translating a Poem, from a Linguistic Perspective

Target ◽  
1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elżbieta Tabakowska
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Mass Nouns ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
Linguistic Conventions ◽  
Literature And Language

Abstract To bridge the unfortunate gap between "literature" and "language", literary critics, including critics of translation, should make use of what linguists have to say about language. Out of modern linguistic theories, Cognitive Linguistics seems particularly promising. On the basis of Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay " and one of its Polish translations, the author demonstrates how intuitive interpretations and assessments are corroborated by a strictly linguistic analysis, which is carried out in the cognitivist vein. In particular, the interplay of two grammatical oppositions—between perfective and imperfective verb forms and between countable and mass nouns—is shown to be a means of direct symbolisation of meaning. Translation losses are then discussed—some unavoidable in view of systematic discrepancies between linguistic conventions, others a compromise imposed by the demands of versification.

When romantic love in Gĩkũyũ becomes a human body part

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moses Gatambuki Gathigia ◽  
Ruth W. Ndung’u ◽  
Daniel Ochieng Orwenjo
Keyword(s):  
Human Body ◽  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor Theory ◽  
Identification Procedure ◽  
Interview Schedule ◽  
Human Body Part ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Research Assistants

Studies in Cognitive Linguistics show that metaphors are fundamental to the structuring of people’s thought and language (Sweetser 1990; Kövecses 2009). It is against this backdrop that this study discusses human body parts as metaphors of conceptualizing love in Gĩkũyũ. To achieve this objective, an interview schedule was administered to 48 respondents of different gender by the researcher assisted by four research assistants. The Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and the main principles of the Metaphor Identification Procedure Vrije Universiteit (MIPVU) (see Steen et al. 2010) were used in this study. The principles of the MIPVU were employed to find out whether the lexical items collected were metaphorical or not. Using three annotators and the researcher, the study identified 100 Metaphor Related Words (MRWs) as per the annotation guidelines adapted from the MIPVU procedures and three lexical units which were annotated as Discard From Metaphor Analysis (DFMA). From the MRWs, the study identified eight metaphors of human body parts which play an indispensable role in the conceptualization of love in Gĩkũyũ. Further, the study noted that gender is a vital variable that provides people with the prism through which they view love since males registered more lexical frequencies for LOVE IS A HUMAN BODY PART than females. The study concludes that metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics is not only a creative device, but an important mental facility and cognitive instrument.

scholarly journals Pasażerowie w tajnym języku personelu pokładowego

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (XXII) ◽  
pp. 29-40
Author(s):  
Beata Marta Kopecka
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Linguistics ◽  
Linguistic Analysis ◽  
Flight Attendants ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Metaphor And Metonymy

This article is devoted to the linguistic analysis of terms referring to air passengers in the language of flight attendants. The term secret language denotes a subsection of the aviation slang used by cabin crews to communicate information meant not to be understood by passengers. The analysis, aiming at discovering the motivation for the creation of such terms, focuses on the role of metaphor and metonymy. Metaphor and metonymy are treated in accordance with the assumptions of cognitive linguistics.

Gender stereotyping

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristina Dziallas
Keyword(s):  
Female Body ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Conceptual Metaphor ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Gender Stereotyping ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Male Body ◽  
The Core ◽  
Metaphor And Metonymy

Abstract Across languages, the head and sexualized body parts (i.e., vagina, breasts, penis, testicles) are conceptualized in a number of ways, for example as fruits and vegetables: heads are conceptualized as cabbages, vaginas as figs, breasts as melons, penises as carrots, and testicles as olives, to only name a few. The present study draws on the theories of conceptual metaphor and metonymy by Lakoff & Johnson (1980) to analyze the conceptualizations of the five body parts as fruits and vegetables in English, Spanish and French. For this purpose, a slang dictionary-based database of 184 conceptualizations was compiled. Research on the head and sexualized body parts is particularly interesting as they represent the core of intellect and sexuality respectively, which makes them prone to being conceptualized in a variety of expressive and euphemistic ways. The results of the present study show that female body parts are primarily conceptualized as sweet fruits, while the penis as well as the head are mostly understood of as savory vegetables. This finding suggests a case of gender stereotyping, whereby sweet-natured women are denied intelligence as the head is stereotypically seen as a male body part (i.e., as a savory vegetable).

Some key body parts and polysemy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Priestley
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Cultural Bias ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Visible Body

This chapter discusses body part nouns, a part of language that is central to human life, and the polysemy that arises in connection with them. Examples from everyday speech and narrative in various contexts are examined in a Papuan language called Koromu and semantic characteristics of body part nouns in other studies are also considered. Semantic templates are developed for nouns that represent highly visible body parts: for example, wapi ‘hands/arms’, ehi ‘feet/legs’, and their related parts. Culture-specific explications are expressed in a natural metalanguage that can be translated into Koromu to avoid the cultural bias inherent in using other languages and to reveal both distinctive semantic components and similarities to cross-linguistic examples.

scholarly journals The signing body: extensive sign language practice shapes the size of hands and face

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Mora ◽  
Anna Sedda ◽  
Teresa Esteban ◽  
Gianna Cocchini
Keyword(s):  
Sign Language ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Spatial Context ◽  
Dependent Manner ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Baseball Players ◽  
Space Condition ◽  
Hand Size ◽  
Stable Representation ◽  
The Face

AbstractThe representation of the metrics of the hands is distorted, but is susceptible to malleability due to expert dexterity (magicians) and long-term tool use (baseball players). However, it remains unclear whether modulation leads to a stable representation of the hand that is adopted in every circumstance, or whether the modulation is closely linked to the spatial context where the expertise occurs. To this aim, a group of 10 experienced Sign Language (SL) interpreters were recruited to study the selective influence of expertise and space localisation in the metric representation of hands. Experiment 1 explored differences in hands’ size representation between the SL interpreters and 10 age-matched controls in near-reaching (Condition 1) and far-reaching space (Condition 2), using the localisation task. SL interpreters presented reduced hand size in near-reaching condition, with characteristic underestimation of finger lengths, and reduced overestimation of hands and wrists widths in comparison with controls. This difference was lost in far-reaching space, confirming the effect of expertise on hand representations is closely linked to the spatial context where an action is performed. As SL interpreters are also experts in the use of their face with communication purposes, the effects of expertise in the metrics of the face were also studied (Experiment 2). SL interpreters were more accurate than controls, with overall reduction of width overestimation. Overall, expertise modifies the representation of relevant body parts in a specific and context-dependent manner. Hence, different representations of the same body part can coexist simultaneously.

Maximizing Recall of Gruesome Images for Health Effects Advertising: An Experimental Investigation

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 112-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brennen W. Mills ◽  
Owen B. J. Carter ◽  
Robert J. Donovan
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Investigation ◽  
Body Part ◽  
The Body ◽  
Advertising Effectiveness ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Online Study ◽  
Video Clips ◽  
Video Images ◽  
The Impact

The objective of this case study was to experimentally manipulate the impact on arousal and recall of two characteristics frequently occurring in gruesome depictions of body parts in smoking cessation advertisements: the presence or absence of an external physical insult to the body part depicted; whether or not the image contains a clear figure/ground demarcation. Three hundred participants (46% male, 54% female; mean age 27.3 years, SD = 11.4) participated in a two-stage online study wherein they viewed and responded to a series of gruesome 4-s video images. Seventy-two video clips were created to provide a sample of images across the two conditions: physical insult versus no insult and clear figure/ground demarcation versus merged or no clear figure/ground demarcation. In stage one, participants viewed a randomly ordered series of 36 video clips and rated how “confronting” they considered each to be. Seven days later (stage two), to test recall of each video image, participants viewed all 72 clips and were asked to identify those they had seen previously. Images containing a physical insult were consistently rated more confronting and were remembered more accurately than images with no physical insult. Images with a clear figure/ground demarcation were rated as no more confronting but were consistently recalled with greater accuracy than those with unclear figure/ground demarcation. Makers of gruesome health warning television advertisements should incorporate some form of physical insult and use a clear figure/ground demarcation to maximize image recall and subsequent potential advertising effectiveness.

scholarly journals Wrist and finger motor representations embedded in the cerebral and cerebellar resting-state activation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiki Kusano ◽  
Hiroki Kurashige ◽  
Isao Nambu ◽  
Yoshiya Moriguchi ◽  
Takashi Hanakawa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Finger Movements ◽  
Multiple Components ◽  
Brain Activity Pattern ◽  
Motor Representations ◽  
The Brain

AbstractSeveral functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have demonstrated that resting-state brain activity consists of multiple components, each corresponding to the spatial pattern of brain activity induced by performing a task. Especially in a movement task, such components have been shown to correspond to the brain activity pattern of the relevant anatomical region, meaning that the voxels of pattern that are cooperatively activated while using a body part (e.g., foot, hand, and tongue) also behave cooperatively in the resting state. However, it is unclear whether the components involved in resting-state brain activity correspond to those induced by the movement of discrete body parts. To address this issue, in the present study, we focused on wrist and finger movements in the hand, and a cross-decoding technique trained to discriminate between the multi-voxel patterns induced by wrist and finger movement was applied to the resting-state fMRI. We found that the multi-voxel pattern in resting-state brain activity corresponds to either wrist or finger movements in the motor-related areas of each hemisphere of the cerebrum and cerebellum. These results suggest that resting-state brain activity in the motor-related areas consists of the components corresponding to the elementary movements of individual body parts. Therefore, the resting-state brain activity possibly has a finer structure than considered previously.

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